Busy little gnomes

Thank goodness for my phone or I don't think I would get anything up on this blog. We have been super busy with the new site and haven't had a chance. I love that spring is in full swing, the boys are not so happy as that means they will be out in the yard preparing the garden soon!

Blessings!

Busy week...

I have been keeping crazy hours as we work to get the new site done. Without the help of our assistant we would be a mess. She is doing so much, it is a total labor of love.  I am so excited for our relaunch next week!!

We did manage to get through school this week, I love the new chalk board we painted. Lala insisted on me making her fraction review as big as possible.

Super Sam discovered the hand crank mill this week...glad we have it in case we need it, but goodness it would take a long time to grind enough for bread. It is great *work* for Super Sam. Grinding our own wheat gives him the sense of seeing his food beginning to end.

I have been knitting...those pictures soon.

Blessings :)

Handwork, chalk boards & media Oh MY!

Seems like I am getting posting time about once every two-four weeks... I am good with that, but will try to use my phone to upload more often.  We are busy, busy on our site redesign and working with our TFW program - I am LOVING the program, I feel so blessed to walk this road with other moms and honored to mentor them.  I am filled with so much joy at God's calling.

Busy at home... we have this short little wall in our living room/school space that was begging for a chalk board! We just used chalk board paint (2 coats was a full quart) and I just love how it turned out.  It takes the creamy chalks very well. Lala and Papa were so nice to take on this project for me!

We've been busy with handwork too.  I love that writing for the program is stretching me with handwork.  I haven't done some of these projects in more than five years and it is sweet to come back to them for Super Sam.

A simple crocheted bag, it is a substitute for the traditional Easter basket:

Crayon roll ups, one is for Super Sam's Easter basket and the other is a giveaway:

Super Sam is modeling a little gnome hat for our give aways that will start at the end of the month on our business site:

Life with so much smart technology has made us decide to have media free zones and days. We decided that Saturday would be media free, meaning no computers, texting or TV during the daylight hours. With the teens in our house, it can feel like I am often fighting media from all sides and working 1000% harder to keep it from permeating Super Sam's life. It isn't nearly as simple as it was when the big kids were little. Our first media free Saturday was great, the only complainer was He-Man - but I think he really secretly enjoyed it. The media free zones are really working wonders and these signs we made are great little reminders.  

Off to enjoy a beautiful Sunday.  The snow is supposed to melt this week and I am hoping we'll see more signs of spring so we can get started on our plot of land and deciding how we'll garden it this year.  So much fun stuff.

Going to try something new...

I adore my Stockmar products, but I often have people ask me if I have experience with others, so I am going to  try these Glob pigments.  It suggests using them for play dough as well as painting so we'll see!  Play dough, Easter eggs maybe... painting some botany pictures with Lala.  Could be a good thing!

Botanical Paint Set-Watercolor Pigments

Sweet Sunday

I love days like today. It was a little rushed and we walked into church about ten minutes late, but Erik and I love teaching Primary and I love love love quiet afternoons. I have been working more and more to prepare myself and my home on Saturday so that Sunday is truly a day of rest and reflection, so having made bread yesterday, meals today were quick and simple. (Thank you to my brand new Nutrimill and the sifter attachment on my Bosch!!)

I helped The Dr. get working on a cute little monster from Rebecca Danger's cute knits, while Lala, He-Man and everyone else relaxed with a game.  Love this yarn, Lala and I dyed it a couple years back with food coloring, it is so pretty! Baby Bird will need a hat from it!

We enjoyed an awesome movie at the recommendation of a dear friend (thanks Debbie!) The movie is called Courageous and it really highlights the need in our time for good men, good Dads, wonderful husbands. It left me feeling so thankful for Papa. He is such a good Daddy. No excuses from him, he steps up to the plate. I am so blessed. (I will say this isn't a movie for little ones because of the subject matter, but there is no sex and no swearing.)

I finished up the weekend by getting our menu down on paper again. It helps when it is pretty *wink* - with moving and the holidays and my Nutrimill being broken, we fell off the wagon a bit. Having so many options when for years all we had was Taco Bell and Jack-in-the-Box made us a bit like kids in a candy store, but of course candy needs limits so we wrote a new menu and I made it pretty. I feel so blessed to have a natural foods store within walking distance and they are full of alternative flours, so we can get back to a more diverse grain selection. Now if we could just score raw milk within walking distance, LOL, but we might need a goat of our own...and some hens...and a lamb for wool...I can't wait to play on our little slice of Heaven in the middle of Busytown.

Blessings :)

Lala's shawl

I meant to have this done for Christmas and then I aimed for her birthday, but I just finished it yesterday. She was so excited. Now I need to find her a shawl pin. She is getting so grown up.

Baby Bird's new hat

I love this hat pattern, it is super easy. I have it linked on ravelry.com - username waldorfessentials.

Isn't she yummy? She sure kicks our butts, but she is such a sweet blessing.